31 
Finishing my labors at Somerset on the 7th of April, I bade a final adieu to the 
country and turned homeward. 
To Maj. T. C. Bedford, of Vicksburg, and Mr. J. B. O’Kelley, of .Somerset Landing, 
I am under very many obligations. From first to last — and I made the latter gentle- 
man’s home my headquarters for over a month — both left nothing undone that could 
aid me in my work, or make my stay pleasant. 
To Judge F. H. Faner, of Bayou Sara, Judge E. D. Faner, and other gentlemen of 
Vicksburg, to General Furgerson, of the Mississippi Loan Board, Judge Gunby, and 
Messrs. Robert E. Craig and John M. Lee, I am under obligations for both personal 
courtesies and aid in my investigations. 
And lastly, I have had your own kindly advice and counsel, the more valuable from 
your personal knowledge of the country and of the insect. 
Respectfully, 
F. M. WEBSTER. 
Dr. C. V. Riley, 
Entomologist. 
There is no authentic record of the occurrence of the Southern Buffalo- 
gnat in Louisiana prior to the year 1850, when there seems to have 
been some complaint of tlieir harassing domestic animals, but no fa- 
tality is known to have resulted. A vague rumor exists to the effect 
that they had previously appeared in 1846 ; but this lacks confirmation. 
The earliest record I have Been able to obtain of stock being killed by 
gnats was related to me by Mr. Jacob Alexander, present mayor of 
Greenville, Miss., who states that he observed cattle being killed by 
gnats at Clarendon, Ark., in the spring of 1859. 
A colored man, formertyan overseer, states that mules were killed by 
gnats near Refuge, Miss., in 1861 and 1862. General Furgerson, who 
came to Greenville, Miss., in 1862, with a battery of Confederate artillery, 
states that gnats were exceedingly troublesome to horses and mules 
during the spring of that year. They were also observed in Concordia 
Parish, Louisiana, during the spring of 1862. 
In 1863 and 1864 the gnats were very abundant about Shreveport, 
La., and also Chicot County, Arkansas. No trouble is reported during 
1865, but in 1866 the alluvial country between the Arkansas and Red 
Rivers lying east of the Washita was literally overrun with the pests* 
Mr. T. S. Coons, an intelligent planter living at the time near New Car- 
thage, Tensas Parish, Louisiana, preserved a written memorandum made 
at the time the gnats first appeared. 
From this record we learn that up to the afternoon of April 11 no 
gnats had been observed, but towards evening they came in hordes, 
settling upon and biting the mules and horses and throwing them into 
the greatest agony. Of 6 mules and 2 horses belonging to Mr. Coons, 
all of which were as well as usual on the morning of the 11th, the morn- 
ing of the 12th found only one mule alive. In the meantime, a neigh- 
boring planter had lost 30 mules, and Mr. Douglas, on Somerset plan- 
tation, a few miles below, had lost 75 mules. 
The mortality throughout the jiarishesof Madison, Tensas, and Con- 
